Belluzzo might head up Microsoft's Net business

Hong Kong (August 24, 1999) -- When he resigned as chairman and chief
executive officer of Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) yesterday, Rick
Belluzzo's next career destination was unclear. However, a report
today suggests he may join Microsoft Corp. as the software giant's
head of Internet operations -- a position that has effectively been
vacant since November of last year.

Belluzzo is likely to become Microsoft's vice president of
interactive operations, with one of his responsibilities being to
manage the company's MSN (Microsoft Network) Web portal business,
according to a report in today's Wall Street Journal. He would join
Microsoft around Sept. 1, the report added.

His departure from SGI announced yesterday came as something of a
surprise, since earlier this month the hardware and graphics
company had announced a major business restructuring effort
designed to turn around its financial fortunes. ("SGI reorganizes,
cuts staff, launches Cray unit," below). Belluzzo's replacement
at SGI is Robert Bishop, a member of the vendor's board of
directors and a former company director of global sales.

All that was said yesterday about Belluzzo's move by his former
employers was that he would be joining a business that wasn't in
competition with SGI.

Belluzzo joined SGI from Hewlett-Packard Co. in January 1998
replacing Ed McCracken. The announcement of McCracken's resignation as
SGI head came in October of 1997 as the company embarked on a
restructuring operation, although he remained in the job until
Belluzzo's appointment.

Microsoft conducted a company reorganization in March of this year,
putting Jon DeVaan and Brad Chase in joint charge of its Internet
businesses which the vendor rechristened its consumer and commerce
group.

Prior to that, the unit was known as the interactive media group
and had been run by Microsoft President Steve Ballmer since the
resignation of Group Vice President Pete Higgins in November of
last year.

As vice presidents of Microsoft's consumer and commerce group,
Chase and DeVaan are responsible for MSN, WebTV, commerce platforms
and services, consumer devices and vertical commerce platforms,
according to information on Microsoft's Web site.

Compaq debuts two new ProLiant 8-way servers

The servers were announced as part of a marketing push outlined at
a press conference in New York. Compaq calls the initiative
"NonStop eBusiness," which includes the new ProLiant 8000 and 8500
servers, both of which use eight-way profusion symmetric
multiprocessor (SMP) architecture co-developed with Intel Corp.

Microsoft Corp., also at the press conference, announced today
packaging for its Windows 2000 operating system, including a
package called Windows 2000 Advanced Server, which supports servers
of up to eight processors.

Prices for the servers range in price from US$20,000 to $80,000,
which Compaq officials described today as "competitive." Additional
details regarding the configurations and technology were not
provided.

The servers are targeted at companies that rely on the Web and that
will "buy our servers at tremendous volumes," said Mary McDowell,
vice president and general manager of Compaq's Industry Standard
Server Division.

In addition to the hardware, customers also can buy CarePaq service
modules from Compaq, McDowell said.

When Compaq decided to pursue the market for servers aimed at
companies that need highly scalable hardware designed for Web-based
businesses, "people thought we were somewhat crazy," she said,
adding that back then the market amounted to thousands of units,
but now has grown to millions.

The combined market for ISP and ASP servers will grow from $7.85
billion now to $27.2 billion by 2001, according to figures from
Forrester Research Inc. provided by Compaq, whose officials said
today that the company has a goal of being first in that market
during that same time frame.

IBM readies 1-GHz chip for AS/400, RS/6000

Palo Alto, CA (August 16, 1999) -- IBM Corp. today
offered the first glimpse of a new processor under development for
its
AS/400 and RS/6000 servers called the Power4, a test version of
which has been cranked up to 1 GHz in IBM's laboratories, company
officials said.

The disclosure was made at the closely watched Hot Chips
conference, taking place here this week at Stanford University.
Sun Microsystems Inc., Hitachi Ltd. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
(AMD) are among the other companies expected to describe advanced
processors at the conference. (See "Sun details MAJC appliance chip.")

Since clock speed is only one determinant of server performance,
IBM has also developed a complementary technology called
"synchronous wave pipeline interface," which will enable bus speeds
for the Power4 in excess of 500 MHz, said Frank Ferraiolo, a senior
IBM engineer. Bus speeds determine how fast a processor can
exchange data with other parts of a system.

"The goal of the Power4 isn't just creating a high-performance
processor; it's to create a high-performance server," Ferraiolo
said.

IBM hopes its Power4 will be used in powerful Web servers and for
running electronic commerce applications, as well as complex
technical and engineering applications used by the scientific
community, said Joel Tendler, a senior technical analyst with IBM's
server group. IBM aims to start selling the new processor in the
second half of 2001 in its AS/400 and RS/6000 servers, he said.

The Power4 incorporates two processors and a Level 2 cache on a
single chip. Like the test version, the Power4 will be manufactured
using copper wires, rather than the aluminum wiring used in the
current Power3 chip. The Power4 will be manufactured using an
advanced silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology on a 0.18-micron
process, IBM's Ferraiolo said.

IBM's 64-bit offering will compete with chips from Sun,
Hewlett-Packard Co., and Compaq Computer Corp., all of whom are
refining their own 64-bit server processors. Intel Corp. is also
due to enter the fray next year with its first 64-bit processor
known as Merced.

The product version of the Power4 -- as opposed to the test version
described today -- will be detailed October 5 at another semiconductor
conference, the Microprocessor Forum, to be held in San Jose,
California.

Now in its eleventh year, Hot Chips is a highly technical
conference where some of the world's leading semiconductor
engineers present papers on the latest advances in state-of-the-art
silicon technology.

"The technology that underlies e-commerce, the Web, all the
exciting things happening out there -- it all starts right here,"
Michael Blasgen, general chair of the conference, said in his
introductory remarks.

IBM targets Linux with free motherboard design

San Francisco (August 13, 1099) -- IBM Corp.'s Microelectronics division is
offering for free the design for a PowerPC motherboard that runs
Linux as a way to seed the market for PowerPC systems that run the
open source operating system, an IBM engineer said today.

"It's a very Linux approach to the marketplace in that the platform
is open and freely available for use by any customer," said Steve
Faure, an advisory engineer in the PowerPC Applications group at
IBM Microelectronics in Austin, Texas. "What we've done is created
this reference design that uses industry standard components" to
enable original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to fit the
motherboards in the standard ATX motherboard case.

IBM will not charge license fees or royalties, nor is the company
going to manufacture its own motherboards based on the design, he
said.

"IBM is not making a product; no IBM division will make these
motherboards," Faure said. "We just created prototypes."

The company will provide interested OEMs with the schematics, bill
of materials or component list, and artwork of the circuit boards,
according to Faure, adding that the systems should be easy to
make.

"It uses much of the technology in x86 motherboards, but with the
PowerPC chip," Faure said. "We've concentrated specifically in
using standard off-the-shelf components that are readily available.
The only time-to-market issues for any potential OEM would be if
they wanted to modify the design and put their own spin on it."

Faure said he could not reveal the names of any OEMs the company is
talking to about the motherboards or say when one might be
announced. However, products based on the motherboards could
conceivably be available in early 2000, he said.

The architecture harkens from IBM's efforts in the mid-90s to
create reference designs for Mac clones, Faure said. IBM took that
work and updated it by adding things like higher bus speeds and
support for accelerated graphics port (AGP) signals, he said.

IBM generated a lot of interest in the motherboards when it
demonstrated the prototype at LinuxWorld Expo this week in San
Jose, California, Faure said. The company will show them off next
week at HP World in San Francisco.

"The thinking here is that there are all these manufacturers
building x86 boxes to run Linux, and if we can get makers to build
PowerPC boxes for Linux they will be able to offer an alternative
to their customers," he said.

Currently, Apple Computer Inc. is the only major computer
manufacturer to use PowerPC chips on its motherboard.

"A lot of people out there right now are running Linux on PowerPC
but they're using Macs, so they're basically paying for a box to
run both Mac software and Linux," said Faure.

Faure and a representative from LinuxPPC Inc., which makes the
primary distribution of Linux for PowerPC computers, said that
enabling OEMs other than Apple to make PowerPC motherboards for
Linux will benefit people who want to use Linux for performance and
power consumption reasons but don't want to pay high prices for a
Macintosh system.

"It's going to reduce the cost of getting Linux on PowerPC," said
Jason Haas, marketing director for LinuxPPC, based in Hales Corner,
Wisconsin. "For what you pay for a low-end PowerMac you can buy a
relatively high-end Intel-based computer."

Targeted users of the system would include developers, Internet
service providers and scientific users, Haas said.

Faure said he didn't think the motherboard offer would offend
Apple, one of its PowerPC partners.

"I would be surprised if they had any objection," he said. "I just
don't think their customers are, by and large, Linux customers.
This reference design addresses a different market from Apple."

LinuxWorld: Grove links Linux with IA-64

San Jose, CA (August 10, 1999) -- Intel Corp.
Chairman Andy Grove today made a surprise appearance at the
LinuxWorld Conference
and Exposition, announcing that the kernel of Intel's IA-64
architecture for its Merced processor will be released to the
open source community early next year.

Grove said that Merced, scheduled to be released in the middle of
next year, is up and running on Linux, as well as seven other
operating systems, in Intel's testing lab. He helped demonstrate
Linux running on the IA-64 architecture hosting Apache, a publicly
available Web server.

Walking out on stage during the keynote address by Sean Maloney, an
Intel senior vice president, Grove said that both Linux and Intel's
new architecture will drive e-commerce on the Internet. "We are
seeing major changes in the business environment, changes that are
moving toward electronic transactions," Grove said.

Grove said Intel will provide servers based on Merced, Intel's
first IA-64 processor, to key Linux companies for Internet-based
software development by the open source community. Separately,
Merced-based servers will be available via Intel's
developer.intel.com Web site to support commercial developers of
applications and operating systems including, but not limited to,
Linux.

One attendee, unimpressed by the demonstration of Linux running on
an IA-64 simulator, said the Intel executives' pronouncements here
amounted to little more than a marketing opportunity.

"My first thought was that this is an effort to buy the Linux
community," said Ulrich Dziergwa, an official with Ferrari
Electronic AG in Teltow, Germany, which designs and builds
facsimile servers.

"I think another part of it is sending a signal to Microsoft that
there is something else out there in the world -- that Microsoft is
no longer at the center of everything," Dziergwa said. Grove's
attendance here sends a message to Microsoft that Intel has other
operating system vendors with which to partner, he added.

Dziergwa noted that Linux already runs on a 64-bit processor --
Digital Equipment Corp.'s Alpha chip, now owned by Compaq Computer
Corp. Business customers looking for a powerful hardware platform
on which to run Linux applications may well pressure Compaq into
stepping up its efforts in developing Alpha for Linux, he said.

"The risk is much lower to write software for something that is
already running," Dziergwa said, noting that Merced is not expected
to ship until 2000.

SGI reorganizes, cuts staff, launches Cray unit

Boston (August 10, 1999) -- Silicon Graphics Inc.
(SGI) today outlined a corporate reorganization that will lead to
some 1,500
global job cuts with the creation of several new units, including
one for its Cray Research LLC supercomputer business, and
partnerships with other vendors.

The restructuring is intended to put SGI on track financially and
also to push into Internet-related markets, according to written
statements today.

The Cray vector supercomputer business unit will have two home
bases, with Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, serving as the main
manufacturing and engineering site, and Eagan, Minnesota, as the
engineering, sales and service location. SGI is in "active
discussions," seeking another company to take over the Cray
operation "through a partnership or other transaction," according
to the statement detailing the Cray announcement.

Steve Oberlin, vice president of engineering for SGI's Servers and
Supercomputers, will be in charge of the new Cray unit.

As for the rest of the reorganization, Cray announced:

A separate business division to handle SGI's Visual Workstation line with another vendor handling development and
distribution of the product line. The vendor was not named in the statement, which said that SGI has not finalized terms of
the deal.

A business unit aimed at broadband Internet systems. Additional details were not offered.

The spinoff of the MediaBase media-streaming application, engineering team and technology to a new company.

Additional details of a previously announced alliance with NVIDIA Corp., in which the two companies will work on
next-generation graphics. SGI graphics engineering workers will transfer to NVIDIA under the deal.

A partnership with Veritas Software Corp. to work on file-system and other software on Irix and Linux platforms.

A partnership with NEC Corp. to market high-performance systems in Japan. Details of the partnership will be announced
Aug. 19 in Tokyo.

The SGI Linux Environment, a version of Red Hat Linux 6.0, improves
network performance and prevents denial-of-service attacks, said
Hank Shiffman, strategic technologist at SGI in Mountain View,
CA. The server, which uses up to four Intel processors, is
geared toward workgroups, he added.

The 1400L is designed for collaboration and messaging, network
video streaming, proxy serving, security serving, and scientific
analysis. It comes with one to four 500-MHz Pentium III Xeon
processors, 512K, one or two megabytes of secondary cache, up to four gigabytes
of memory, seven PCI slots, six Ultra2 SCSI hot-swappable drive
bays and redundant power supplies.

The server also comes with Samba, an open source product that adds
native Windows NT file and print services to Linux, and is
available in rack-mount or deskside configurations. A base
configuration that includes one processor, a 512-kilobyte cache, 256 megabytes
of memory, and a nine-gigabyte disk starts at US$7,935.

SGI also plans to announce in the near future a two-way system in
the SGI 1000 server family that will be geared toward Internet
service providers.

SGI hinted at its Linux strategy at Spring Comdex this year, when
CEO Richard Belluzzo said the company believes in the open source
model. Recently, the company moved toward the open source community
by offering it the key XFS piece of its Irix operating system,
which can enhance a Linux-based system's ability to recover after a
crash and to handle very large files.

The release of the SGI 1400L shows the company's commitment to
providing Linux solutions, and SGI intends to add more value to the
Linux system by providing it with more support, said Shiffman.

Project Monterey slated for launch in Q3 next year

Singapore (July 29, 1999) -- The unified Unix
variant codenamed Project Monterey being jointly developed by IBM
Corp., the Santa
Cruz Operation Inc. (SCO) and Sequent Computer Systems Inc. will be
launched in the third quarter of next year, SCO President for
Asia-Pacific James Clark said here today.

The Monterey-64 operating system will run on 32-bit and forthcoming
64-bit Intel Corp. Merced processors and IBM's PowerPC RISC
(reduced instruction set computer) processors, and will show the
results of technology sharing between SCO and IBM and their
respective UnixWare 7 and AIX Unix operating systems, Clark said at
a technology seminar held here today.

"We've taken the best bits of AIX with the best bits of UnixWare 7
and added some new features," he said. "Monterey-64 will also
include a lot of AIX middleware."

Greater scalability and capacity will mark future developments to
2001, according to Clark. These developments will include clusters
of 32 nodes up from today's four to six nodes; the ability to
handle 32-way SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) systems up from
today's 16-way systems; and an increase in maximum individual file
sizes from one terabyte to eight terabytes.

The Monterey-64 project was endorsed in April by Compaq Computer
Corp. when the company said it would use the operating system on
its future 64-bit ProLiant servers.

The advanced operating system will enable SCO to migrate its
business towards higher-end enterprise markets, Clark said.

"The critical factors for volume markets are standard hardware, a
standard operating system and volume applications," he said.